OURHAMLET.ORG

Hi. I am on a fact finding mission about the old Hamlet Moncure Hospital. I remember an adventure as a kid, where we sneaked out the window during a sleepover at a friends house and rode bikes to the Old Moncure Hospital at midnight. It was one of those adolescent "rites of passage" type of things.

During the day, the day before, we went on bikes to find the location first in the daylight. If I remember correctly, I think it was somewhere off of Rice Street. I think I remember some type of ruins and finding some crushed purple glass fragments, like the old medicine bottles.

The reason why we went there was because supposedly, there was a fire and people died, and if you went there at midnight, you could hear their screams. Remember...I was about 13 years old at the time and this was a great dare. Everyone who went was scared, although nobody wanted to act like they were scared!

That was a long time ago, a 13 year old's adventure. I don't know why I remembered it after all these years. But it got me thinking, was is the real story behind the hospital?

Was it actually near Rice Street, and was there actually a fire? If so, what year?

I found a picture of it on a UNC website:
http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer. ... OX=1&REC=9

I remember going to camp out overnight at the old Moncure Hospital in the late 50's. Harry Heaton and myself with a couple other friends were playing in the Old Hospital and one of the boys looked out of the back window and saw a light coming thru the woods. We all looked out and saw someone with a light coming toward us, that ended our campout. we all went to Harry's house and slipped in the back door into Harry's bedroom. The next morning we slipped out before Harry's Mother and Grandmother got up. It was in the woods at the end of Henderson Street.

Ha Ha. That sounds similar to my experience. Thanks!

Does anyone know the ACTUAL history of the hospital, and not just the folklore that fueled our young minds? Other than the scanned postcard at UNC, there is not much information about it on the web.

Thanks again.

The Moncure Hospital was built during World War I by Col. William Moncure, Sr., who was Chief Engineer (Civil) and General Manager for the railroad in Raleigh, NC He built the hospital in Hamlet for his son, Dr. William M. Moncure, Jr., who operated the hospital after he returned from military service in the war. The hospital had about 20 rooms and was said to be well equiped for its day. Dr. Moncure operated the hospital until about 1930 when he moved to Danville, Va. and became a resident physician in the Danville Memorial Hospital.

I have a copy of a Hamlet history book published by the town's centennial committee in 1997. It confirms the previous story and adds some later history of the hospital and the Moncures.

The building apparently was no longer a hospital by 1943, and it was rented by the U.S. Army as a headquarters for the troops that trained in the area. Up to 40,000 soldiers were on maneuvers during the period, but a limit of 10,000 soldiers in town at any one time was imposed.

William Moncure Sr. did the first land survey in Hamlet in 1876 and laid out the streets and lots on Raleigh, Spring, High, Wilmington and Charlotte streets as well as Hamlet Avenue.

Picture and information from "More Than a Memory" published 1997

Great information. Thanks everyone. So was it finally abandoned and just deteriorate away over time to disrepair?

It's funny how local folklore can grow into a big creepy story over time.

thanks again.

I had a dog, once, whose name was Whitey. He was a Russian Wolfhound. He was headed off on one of his journeys when momma called him. He turned to look at her as if to say goodbye. I later found him, dead, on the two-rut dirt road leading to old Moncure Hospital. I would say your assessment of it being off Rice Street is correct given I was raised in Pinecroft. I'll look at historical aerials and try to give you an exact location. "A History of Richmond County" by James E. and Ida C. Huneycutt confirms earlier information that it was located at the end of Henderson St.

Keep in mind that the last time I was out there was in the sixties, but it was not an unknown place to the Pinecroft kids.

Great! I appreciate the info.

I live about 30 minutes from The Devils Tramping Ground. To see it in person is rather....underwhelming to say the least!

Yet such a plain circle of salt-filled sterile soil has been the source of centuries of rich folklore. How these things get started and get a life of their own is always interesting.

Re: The "Devil's Tramping Ground"... If you don't know Bailey White's books, you should look her up. She has a plethora of old tales to tell. "Mama Makes Up Her Mind" seems to ring a bell.

According to my Mom, she and my Dad rented one of the rooms in the old hospital pre-WWII after it was no longer being used as a hospital. As I recall from her conversation as well as having plundered the place on numerous occasion, there were 4 rooms or so used as apartments.

We used to use the hospital to play a "teenaged game of Hide and Seek" and trying to scare each as we chased each other through the building. I think it was Brenda Horne that came out of there one day screaming swearing she'd seen a dead body in the boiler in the basement.

Since my Mom is still living, I'll see if I can get some more history on the building and post.

In the early 60s we used to ride our bikes to the old hospital. The porch roof of the building eventually collapsed, making it harder to get in. We heard that someone had used a car to pull out the support columns. Too bad. Sadly, we contributed to the vandalism. When we built our treehouse we took the banisters from the stairs to use for support beams. Hopefully they were just oak, not walnut or mahogany. Looking back I marvel that 10 and 11 year old kids could ride a bike for miles while straddling lumber set on the seat and handlebars. We moved a lot of scrounged wood that way, and at the time it didn't seem too hard.

David Breeze

We used to go out there as well. I do believe it was out Henderson Street. Henderson runs parallel with Rice. It is the street that is the corner of Wilson Harrington Funeral Home. You probably could get to it from Rice Street as well. We didn't like walking our bikes up the hill at the end of Rice.

It has been a VERY LONG TIME but I seem to remember that at one time it was a hospital where people with TB were housed.